Purdue airport remains open
Tuesday
By Laura Pelner
Campus
Editor
The Purdue Airport remained open throughout the
day Tuesday, though no aircrafts were allowed to take off or land.
Betty Stansbury, airport director, said the Federal
Aviation Administration ordered a ground hold on all aircraft in the
mid-morning Tuesday as a result of the suspected terrorist activities
that took place in New York City and Washington, D.C.
She said the hold wouldn't be lifted until around
noon today.
"We're available if there was an emergency diversion
or if an aircraft had to land earlier (Tuesday)," Stansbury said.
She said the tower was open in case of an emergency.
The airport's commercial carrier, Northwest Airlink,
which provides daily service from Lafayette to Detroit, had only one
flight leave the ground Tuesday — a 7:15 a.m. departure.
Stansbury said the remaining flights — a 5:30
p.m. arrival, 6 p.m. departure and an 11:30 p.m. arrival — were
canceled. This morning's 7:15 flight was also canceled.
"We've increased our security measures at the airport,"
said Stansbury.
She said those measures included a safety sweep
of the airport using bomb-sniffing dogs, among other tactics.
"We have some measures that you probably won't
see and that I can't discuss with you," she said. "We're doing some
increased security measures right now. We'll probably do them for the
next couple days."
Stansbury said the airport would re-evaluate its
condition on a daily basis to determine how long it will continue the
heightened security measures.
She said the airport was not ordered to conduct
any of the measures, rather, it's doing them as a precautionary measure.
"Every airport is doing similar measures just as
precautions," she said.
Other agencies that generally use air travel are
also taking extra precautions. Randy Heath, Postmaster for West Lafayette,
said the post office is not accepting any Express Mail.
He said the post office can't provide the service,
which is usually guaranteed to arrive by 12 noon the next day, because
there's no way to deliver the mail.
"Due to the (Federal Aviation Administration) grounding
all air activities, we can't (provide the service)," Heath said. "We
have a guaranteed service that we can't provide, so we're not accepting
it."
He said Express Mail currently in their possession
would probably be sent via truck or rail.
Additionally, some post offices such as the Lafayette
post office, which is downtown in the federal building, closed Tuesday
because federal buildings closed nationwide.
"As it stands, our internal police and security
people still believe the postal service is not the target that federal
entities or national entities may be," Heath said.
|
